Wednesday, August 20, 2014

Saving Mr. Banks (2013) [PG-13] ****

A film
review by James Berardinelli, for ReelViews.net, on Dec. 19, 2013.

For an
author of long-form fiction, the writing process isn't merely technical. As
absurd as it might seem, the writer bonds with his or her characters to the point
where they can become as real as any
flesh-and-blood person. This is especially true when a character incorporates
key aspects of someone from the author's past. Such was the case with P.L. Travers, the writer of the popular
Mary Poppins books, which are
arguably best known to children (and adults) around the world as a result of
the 1964 movie adaptation. Saving Mr.
Banks is an account of how that movie came into being despite a Travers'
20-year resistance to the overtures of Walt Disney. Travers loved her
characters so much that the thought of them being changed or degraded for the
big screen was anathema.

As an
exploration of the making of process
associated with Mary Poppins, Saving Mr. Banks offers engaging
material, but the film gains emotional heft through a series of flashbacks that
unveil why the characters in Mary Poppins
possessed great meaning for Travers. Moving back and forth between 1906
Australia and 1961 Los Angeles, the film provides a full portrait of the
author, who is played as a child by Annie
Rose Buckley and as a sixty-something woman by Emma Thompson. The movie's other standout performance is Tom Hanks, whose interpretation of Walt
Disney is said by those who knew the late Hollywood heavyweight to be spot-on,
even down to his little mannerisms.

Disney
is opening Saving Mr. Banks to mark
the occasion of Mary Poppins' 50th
anniversary. As good a piece of drama as this is, it also represents canny
marketing since the film it references is being released in a restored Blu-ray
version with a buffet of special features. Saving
Mr. Banks serves as the appetizer; it's almost impossible to watch this
movie and not feel the urge to seek out a copy of the Julie Andrews/Dick Van
Dyke musical. It has also been suggested that Saving Mr. Banks is the Walt Disney Corporation's posthumous
apology to Travers since her bitterness toward Disney deepened after the
release of Mary Poppins (something
not shown in the film).

Saving Mr. Banks offers two separate stories that
are interleaved to emphasize connections not initially evident. The first
follows the exploits of eight-year old Ginty as she and her family settle in a
ramshackle home and try to forge a life in territory that could best be
described as isolated. Her father,
Travers Goff (Colin Farrell), views
this as a great adventure and his passion fires Ginty's excitement. Her mother,
Margaret (Ruth Wilson), is
unenthused. As loving as Goff can be, however, he also adores the bottle too
much and his alcoholism [and tuberculosis] represents his downfall.

The bulk
of the narrative transpires in the early 1960s. Disney has flown Travers to Los
Angeles in a last-ditch attempt to convince her to sell him the rights to Mary Poppins. He allows her to meet the
would-be screenwriter, Don DaGradi (Bradley
Whitford), and the Brothers Sherman, Robert (B.J. Novak) and Richard (Jason
Schwartzman), who have been hired to write the songs. He gives her a chatty
driver (Paul Giamatti), who talks up
the beauty of Los Angeles, and provides her with a personal tour of Disneyland.
He allows her to critique the script and expresses to her what Mary Poppins means to him. History tells
us that Travers relented but Saving Mr.
Banks shows how difficult the process was.

Those
familiar with the behind-the-scenes negotiations that transpired more than a
half-century ago laud the movie's truthfulness. Richard Sherman, the surviving
member of the songwriting duo, acted as a consultant. (Saving Mr. Banks is dedicated to Robert, who died in early 2013.)
Screenwriters Kelly Marcel and Sue Smith and director John Lee Hancock (The Blind Side) should be commended for keeping the tone light
while still achieving a significant emotional impact. The movie avoids
commonplace traps; it never becomes maudlin and it doesn't transform Travers
into a likeable elderly lady whose heart of gold is camouflaged by
crotchetiness.

Solid
acting is one reason why Saving Mr. Banks
works as effectively as it does. The cast is top-heavy with past Oscar nominees
and winners. Hanks and Thompson's credentials are obvious, but supporting
players Paul Giamatti and Rachel
Griffiths also have nominations on their records. As good as Hanks and
Thompson are (and they're both excellent), the strength of the secondary
performers is a quality that elevates Saving
Mr. Banks above the level of a by-the-numbers based on a true story tale.

Thomas Newman's score is notable for liberally
sampling familiar Disney themes, especially those from Mary Poppins. No fewer than ten of the Sherman Brothers' tunes are
used in one form or another and a highlight occurs when Travers hears Let's Go Fly a Kite for the first time -
the song that saves Mr. Banks. The
musical connection and the use of clips near the end form an umbilical cord
between Saving Mr. Banks and Mary Poppins and allow nostalgia to
boost the film's effectiveness. Taken on its own, Saving Mr. Banks is a pleasant, crowd-pleasing endeavor. For those
with a soft spot for Mary Poppins,
however, it's a treasure. [Berardinelli's rating: ***